Don't believe the media...MS-DOS is not dead! As a matter of fact, Windows 95 empowers MS-DOS applications more than any version of Windows has to date. Not all programs that you run are written for Windows 95 or even for a previous version of Windows. In the past, Windows did not always provide the support that these MS-DOS programs required. Sometimes you would need to exit Windows completely to run an MS-DOS program.
Virtually every MS-DOS program will run under Windows 95, including many games that were previously off limits to Windows. In addition to handling memory problems that previously plagued MS-DOS programs running inside the Windows environment, Windows 95 provides modern MS-DOS features that will make you think you're running a new version of MS-DOS.
The highlights of this hour include:
If you want to run an MS-DOS program inside Windows 95, you don't have to start MS-DOS first. You can run the program from the Run command on the Start menu (as long as you know the program's path and filename), or you can add the program to one of the Start menu's cascaded menus and click on the program description or program icon.
If you want to load the MS-DOS environment, Windows 95 provides an MS-DOS icon on the Start menu's Programs group. If you click on the MS-DOS icon, the MS-DOS environment runs in a maximized or smaller window (depending on the settings in the Settings | Taskbar properties dialog box).
3.1 Step Up In almost every case, Windows 95 provides more free memory for the MS-DOS environment than did previous versions of Windows.
TIME SAVER: You may start one or more MS-DOS windows! As a result, you can run several MS-DOS programs at one time, and each will run multitasked inside its own window.
Windows Minute
Environment Control
In the Windows 95 Shut Down command's dialog box, there is no command to exit
Windows 95. In previous versions of Windows, MS-DOS would be the controlling environment
for Windows; Windows 95 is the controlling environment for MS-DOS.
The Shut Down dialog box does provide an option that lets you shut down Windows
95 and start a windowless MS-DOS environment. You would want to enter the MS-DOS
environment after shutting down Windows 95, and only when you find one of those rare
MS-DOS programs that refuses to run under Windows 95.
Task 14.1: Starting an MS-DOS Window
Step 1: Description
This task shows you how to enter the MS-DOS environment from Windows 95. MS-DOS is
simply another application to Windows 95, so starting MS-DOS requires no special
skills. The MS-DOS environment is known as the MS-DOS prompt in Windows 95
because the MS-DOS prompt collects keystrokes as you type them in an MS-DOS window.
JUST A MINUTE: The MS-DOS window is sometimes called a windowed MS-DOS VM, which stands for Virtual Machine. Each MS-DOS window acts as if that window contains a separate PC that does not interfere with other MS-DOS VM windows.
Step 2: Action
Figure 14.1.
The MS-DOS window acts like any other window in Windows 95.
JUST A MINUTE: Your MS-DOS window may appear fully maximized or resized differently from the figure's MS-DOS window.
JUST A MINUTE: Although the keystroke is not obvious, you can increase the MS-DOS window to full-screen size by pressing Alt+Enter.
Figure 14.2. Multiple
MS-DOS windows can be open at one time.
Step 3: Review
The MS-DOS command prompt icon on the Programs menu opens the windowed MS-DOS
environment. From the MS-DOS command prompt, you can start MS-DOS programs or issue
MS-DOS commands. This task left your Windows 95 environment with one open MS-DOS
window. The next task lets you practice using the MS-DOS toolbar at the top of that
window.
Task 14.2. The MS-DOS Toolbar
Step 1: Description This task describes how to use the toolbar that appears on
MS-DOS windows. Figure 14.3 shows the toolbar. Previous versions of Windows contained
no toolbar. Remember that the toolbar appears only on non-maximized MS-DOS windows.
The toolbar is optional, so you can remove the toolbar if you do not want to see
it at the top of MS-DOS windows.
Figure 14.3. The toolbar
adds functionality to the MS-DOS window.
Step 2: Action
JUST A MINUTE: The double letter T next to a font size indicates that the font is a True Type font. True Type fonts are generally more readable than non-True Type fonts.
CAUTION: You can copy MS-DOS data to the Clipboard or paste from the Clipboard. You cannot cut data from the MS-DOS window.
Figure 14.4.
The highlighted portion of the MS-DOS window is marked for copying.
3.1 Step Up The Windows 95 version of MS-DOS commands are updated to reflect the new Windows 95 environment. The DIR command works in Windows 95 just as it did in previous versions of Windows and MS-DOS, except you'll see a new column to the right of the listing that contains long filenames for the files in the listing.
Windows 95 uses the same internal file structure as previous versions of Windows; when you create a long filename, Windows 95 automatically converts that filename to a unique name that fits within the older naming convention of eight characters with a three-character extension. The DIR command lets you see both the real internal filename and the long filename that you see in Windows 95 dialog boxes.
Another MS-DOS command that you may want to use with long filenames is the COPY command. The following COPY command would never have worked with previous versions of Windows due to the long filenames:
COPY "My August sales report" "Old report"
(The quotation marks are required when using long filenames that contain embedded spaces.) This command copies the file named My August sales report to a file named Old report so that, at the completion of the copy, two identical files will exist on your computer.
JUST A MINUTE: The font used inside the default MS-DOS window is a non-proportional font. Therefore, all character columns in the MS-DOS window consume the same width and all align properly into columns of data. Your WordPad's default font might be set up as a proportional font so the data, when pasted into WordPad, may not align in perfect columns as the data does when shown in the MS-DOS window. If you paste MS-DOS data into a word processor and the data does not align correctly, change the font of the pasted data to a non-proportional font such as Courier.
Figure 14.5.
The MS-DOS Prompt Properties dialog box controls the way MS-DOS starts
and performs.
TIME SAVER: Actually, most of the time you'll want to leave most of the MS-DOS Prompt Properties tabbed dialog box settings alone. The default settings almost always make MS-DOS windows perform the way you want them to.
Figure 14.6.
You can change the icon that appears on the taskbar for an MS-DOS window.
Figure 14.7.
The screen options determine how Windows 95 displays the MS-DOS window.
TIME SAVER: Although you lose some MS-DOS functionality when you remove the toolbar, you gain extra MS-DOS window space that would otherwise be taken up by the toolbar.
3.1 Step Up The MS-DOS Command Properties dialog box replaces the need for PIF and many .INI file tweakings that were the bane of Windows 3.1.
Figure 14.8.
The Font dialog box lets you control the way characters appear inside the
MS-DOS window.
Step 3: Review
The MS-DOS toolbar gives you one-button access to common MS-DOS tasks. You can mark,
copy, and paste to and from the Windows 95 Clipboard. You can adjust the screen size
and the MS-DOS mode properties so that the MS-DOS session behaves differently. In
addition, if you want to use a different font size inside the MS-DOS session, look
no further than the help you need to adjust the display font.
CAUTION: Although you will only rarely find such programs, some older MS-DOS programs and very advanced MS-DOS--based games, will refuse to run if the program detects Windows 95 running. You can fool these programs into running anyway by right-clicking over their Explorer icon, selecting Properties from the pop-up menu, clicking the Program tab, and clicking the option labeled Suggest MS-DOS mode as necessary. Although the program may still refuse to run because of a memory conflict, most problems will clear up and the program will execute even though Windows 95 is also running.
Over time, you'll run across several items in the MS-DOS window that you'll find interesting. Here's something fun you can try: Open the Windows 95 Explorer program and resize the window so you can see both the Explorer window and the MS-DOS window. Find a filename in the Explorer's right window and drag that filename to the MS-DOS prompt. As soon as you release the mouse button, the filename, including its complete drive and pathname, appears at the MS-DOS prompt!
When managing files in the MS-DOS environment, you can drag filenames from Explorer and other Windows 95 Open dialog boxes instead of typing the complete disk, path, and filename. When working inside MS-DOS windows, you can drag the file from the Windows 95 environment, and Windows 95 substitutes the file name at the cursor. Therefore, if you were in the middle of a COPY command, you could drag filenames, from Explorer, to complete the COPY command instead of typing the names.
In addition, Windows 95 has changed the CD command (Change Directory). As you may know, the following command moves you up one parent directory level:
cd ..
If you are buried deep within several levels of directories while in an MS-DOS session, you can add an extra period to the CD command for each directory you want to return to. The following command returns you to three previous parent directory levels:
CD ....
As always, the following command takes you to the root directory no matter how many directory levels are reside in:
cd \
Windows Minute
Starting Programs in MS-DOS
The MS-DOS window is so fully integrated into Windows 95 that you can execute
Windows 95 programs from the MS-DOS prompt. Therefore, if you know the filename
of a Windows 95 program, you will not have to return to Windows 95, if you're working
inside a MS-DOS window, to execute a Windows 95 program.
Although Notepad makes an MS-DOS editor redundant and unnecessary, MS-DOS has supplied a text editor since version 1.0 of MS-DOS. There are many MS-DOS die-hards who still want to edit text files from within the MS-DOS environment.
When the Microsoft programmers wrote Windows 95, they decided to update an old stand-by program, the MS-DOS text editor, to implement the long filenames and to modernize the performance of the program. If you have used an MS-DOS text editor, such as EDIT, you'll feel right at home with the updated version of EDIT (its screen is shown in Figure 14.9).
JUST A MINUTE: This hour does not explain EDIT because the Windows 95 Notepad program replaces EDIT. Notepad, which is explained in Hour 10, "Compose Using Writing Tools," is a Windows 95 program that makes the MS-DOS editor obsolete, except to those who already prefer the
older editor.
Figure 14.9.
The Windows 95 text editor, EDIT, supports long filenames and an improved
keyboard interface.
If you want to start MS-DOS in a specific directory, display the MS-DOS Properties
dialog box (by clicking the Properties MS-DOS toolbar button); then type the directory's
path-name at the option labeled Working.
3.1 Step Up If you use DOSKEY (the program that lets you more easily edit past MS-DOS commands), you can make Windows 95 automatically run the DOSKEY program by entering DOSKEY at the Program dialog box's (located inside the Properties dialog box) Batch File prompt.
In some cases, an MS-DOS program will refuse to run if you are running a Windows 95 screen saver. Follow these steps to allow the screen saver to work along with such a program:
Figure 14.10.
Letting a screen saver work with an MS-DOS program.
CAUTION: If the screen saver messes things up, uncheck the option described in the previous steps so that the screen saver goes idle whenever that particular MS-DOS program runs.
This hour focused on the MS-DOS environment inside Windows 95. Although
Windows 95 users often work far from the MS-DOS text-based environment of olden days,
the MS-DOS environment is still alive and well due to the many programs still in
use today that are written for MS-DOS.
Windows 95 supports MS-DOS programs better than any version of Windows has so far. Windows 95 provides more memory for programs, as well as enabling you to open several multitasking MS-DOS programs at one time. In addition, Windows 95 adds a toolbar to MS-DOS windows that makes the management of your MS-DOS windows and programs much easier to work with.
There are people who will work many hours a day with Windows 95 and never need to start the MS-DOS environment. Others still use older MS-DOS programs and current-day games that run only under MS-DOS. Because of the extra memory and runtime support provided by Windows 95, these MS-DOS programs ought to work comfortably inside Windows 95.
default drive and directory When you start MS-DOS, the MS-DOS command prompt always contains a disk drive and directory. The disk drive is normally C, and the directory is the root directory called \ ( backslash). You can change the default disk or directory by entering a new one at the command prompt.
MS-DOS command prompt When you open an MS-DOS window, you must issue a command to the MS-DOS environment. The command prompt, usually shown on the screen as C:\> indicating the current default drive and directory, accepts your MS-DOS commands as you type the commands.
MS-DOS program A program written specifically for the MS-DOS environment. MS-DOS programs do not take advantage of the graphical nature of Windows 95.
non-proportional font A font that contains characters that each consume the same width on the screen or printer.
proportional font A font that generally makes for a more natural appearance of text. The letters within the text do not all consume the same screen width. For example, the lowercase letter i consumes less space than the uppercase M.
True Type font A readable font that appears the same on both the screen
and printer.
VM Stands for virtual memory and refers to the concept that each MS-DOS
window acts like a separate PC that has access to full memory and other system resources.
